Raja Hamzah Abidin Raja Nong Chik, Ahli Lembaga Pengarah TalentCorp, membincangkan cabaran dan peluang Malaysia dalam inovasi reka bentuk cip maju di tengah-tengah kelembapan momentum pembuatan ASEAN.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Salam sejahtera, anda sedang menyaksikan niaga awani bersama saya Narazman.
00:03Seperti biasa, jam ini kami akan membawakan pelbagai rangkuman berita niaga ekonomi dari tempatan hinggalah ke peringkat antarabangsa.
00:10Dan mencakap mengenai laporan ini dulu, Indeks Pengurus Pembelian PMI Pembuatan SP Global ASEAN merosot untuk bulan kedua berturut-turut pada April 2025.
00:19Catatkan bacaan di bawah paras neutral sebanyak 50.0 buat kali pertama sejak Desember 2023,
00:25ia merekodkan 48.7, nurun daripada 50.8 pada Mac, sekaligus menggambarkan pengeluar ASEAN mengalami kemerosotan yang sederhana.
00:35Tetapi paling ketara dalam keadaan operasi sejak Ogos 2021.
00:39Menurut ahli ekonomi SP Global Market Intelligence, Mariam Beluche berkata,
00:44data PMI pada April menunjukkan gambaran membimbangkan bagi pengeluar barangan ASEAN
00:48apabila sektor tersebut kembali mencatatkan penyusutan buat kali pertama dalam tempoh 16 bulan.
00:54Tambahnya pengeluaran dan pesanan baharu mencatatkan penyusutan semula
00:58dengan aktiviti pembelian yang berkurangan dan mencatatkan kemerosotan dalam pemberhentian pekerjaan.
01:04Dengan itu, kita bersedia dalam talang untuk bantu kita fahami mengenai perkara ini adalah
01:08Raja Hamzah Abidin, Raja Nongchik, Board of Director, Talent Corp.
01:12I want to say thank you very much Raja for joining me.
01:14Especially we can see manufacturing slowing down and we want to take a look,
01:18dive deep into the impact towards chip production.
01:22As ASEAN's manufacturing momentum slows,
01:25can Malaysia realistically scale up innovation in advanced chip design
01:29or will a weak industrial foundation undermine this high-tech ambition?
01:34I think number one, the global global environment has definitely been affected
01:40by what's happening because of the US.
01:42So if you look into sentiment at the moment, it is a bit on the tough side.
01:47However, from a capital scenario point of view,
01:51actually Malaysia is still abundant with capital,
01:54especially from private equity players and also private market players.
01:58within the networks, I've heard of a few semi-conductor funds being funded
02:04by some of our sovereigns and also foreign investors,
02:07which means that there will continuously be steady flow capital
02:11coming into chip design in a certain extent at the periphery of chip production.
02:18So I still believe that the market is still very positive.
02:21And again, when times are tough, when people are investing a bit less outside Malaysia,
02:28I think we stand a good chance of being a hedge to the US,
02:33what's happening to the US-China trade war.
02:35If you look into Penang and Selangor, where they try to build IC design hubs,
02:41I still believe that there will be more demand for those type of scale businesses to come in.
02:48and there's also enough foreign interest I've been hearing of companies wanting to come in.
02:53But I believe in the short term, in the next three to six months,
02:57if any rational business person, they would probably just take a step back, pause and reassess.
03:03I believe in the medium and longer term,
03:07I think we'll still be in a very strong space for IC design and IC production.
03:13We can see the sentiment is quite on the low right now.
03:18But on the technical term, we can see a bit on the good side.
03:22But are the strict financial access requirements under the ARM collaboration,
03:26such as steady cash flow and audited accounts,
03:28unintentionally we can say sidelining the very start of Malaysia's needs to drive semiconductor innovation?
03:36Obviously, the ones that initially will benefit are the sort of the more established IC design houses.
03:46If you look into, I think after the announcement,
03:49Opstar's stock price went up,
03:52Skychip did announcement as well.
03:54So as an sort of an incumbent on an existing play in the market,
03:58you probably will benefit.
03:59But I also believe that with what it's doing with ARM,
04:03I mean, maybe in the short term, it still looks difficult.
04:07But I think more and more engineers who are able to start up their own shop,
04:13start their own IC design,
04:15will at least see a path to being able to leverage ARM's technology to do more.
04:21So what I'm saying is,
04:22if you look into the background of a lot of the local IC design houses,
04:26they were all ex-Intel design engineers.
04:29So Intel, Altera.
04:31So again, the talent pool is there.
04:33But what do we need to help them grow?
04:36Obviously, access to different types of IP is important.
04:39Secondly, capital is important as well.
04:42I put my hats off to the existing guys who come up with minimal capital,
04:48venture capital type investments,
04:50and also minimal talent incentives.
04:54If you look to now, the capital situation is a lot better.
04:57So if you're an early-stage company,
04:58you can either go to some of the government agencies,
05:01you can go to the fund of fund guys,
05:03you can go to private equity players,
05:06and that's one.
05:06On the talent side now,
05:08I think there's a lot more programs focused on semiconductor-related talent,
05:13both because there's an undersupply of them
05:17and also the increasing demand for semiconductor-related talent.
05:21So again, I believe, compared to, let's say, a decade ago,
05:24the environment's a lot more fertile.
05:28It's just that, as a country,
05:29we kind of have to go and grab those opportunities.
05:34Good companies, both locally and also globally,
05:38have to be competitive for them to succeed in this environment.
05:41I think what's key, what we've seen is
05:43China will probably be a bit less relevant to the US,
05:48so we would see some demand go elsewhere.
05:52And I think us as a neutral country would benefit for that.
05:56With regional demand and production indicators in decline,
06:01Raja, is now the right time for Malaysia
06:04to double down on capital-intensive semiconductor investment,
06:07or should priorities shift towards stabilising core manufacturing sectors first?
06:14Again, I would say semiconductor is a broader term of E&E, right?
06:19So E&E is still sort of one of the growth engines of the country as a whole.
06:25E&E, consumer demand,
06:27I think those are some of the underpinnings of growth in Malaysia.
06:31So if you look at the sentiment as a whole,
06:33I think consumer sentiment is a bit on the low side,
06:37given the volatility of the economy, the currency.
06:41But at the same time, we need longer-term drivers of growth.
06:46Manufacturing and higher value at manufacturing
06:48will have to take up the slack.
06:52And this will be providing high-value jobs to the environment.
06:56I think we've spoken a lot about FDI,
06:59but also what is the right type of FDI coming in.
07:02I think last year or a month ago,
07:04I was hosting a bunch of guys on Foxconn.
07:07And again, they were looking to build more in Malaysia,
07:09and contribute more to Malaysia,
07:11strengthening their supply chain over here.
07:13They already have a related company in Penang.
07:16So again, I think that there are those kind of opportunities there to still grow.
07:20I think as an economy as a whole,
07:22in terms of this environment where things are a bit slow,
07:27I think you would see consumer spending slow down.
07:32So we need to find different ways to drive growth.
07:36And manufacturing, I think, for us as a country,
07:38historically and now,
07:39will be an even more important part of the value chain ecosystem for our economy.
07:45All right, that is a very bigger context,
07:47if you take a look at the semiconductors and the growth of ARM chips.
07:51I want to go to specific, the access tokens.
07:54Are the limited 32 access tokens,
07:55which includes 25 for AFA, 7 for CSS,
07:59and then sufficient,
08:01is it sufficient to generally kickstart a robust local chip design ecosystem,
08:05or will this initiative end up benefiting only a select few companies?
08:10I would say initially the ones that benefit would just be a select few.
08:18But I think the idea of it all speaking to the different stakeholders is,
08:21is it for it to gradually benefit a larger environment?
08:25And also, I think on the startup side,
08:28incentivize some of the startups to go into this space,
08:31because licensing somebody's technology is extremely expensive.
08:34So I think when the government de-risked part of it,
08:37I think it helps create a win-win scenario.
08:40But again, I think we go back to the point.
08:41I think there needs to be a conducive environment for risk-taking.
08:46We need more, I see, design houses to come up.
08:49I think even in the past 6 to 12 months of, you know,
08:54capital coming into the semiconductor space,
08:57I do see, I think, more companies,
08:59more startups in this space compared to before,
09:02and also much more foreign investors looking for deals in this space.
09:06So I think it's up to the entrepreneurs to, you know,
09:10look at what's being offered by both government
09:13and some of the private sector players like ARM and all that
09:16and see how they can create a value chain.
09:18I believe it's still relevant.
09:20But again, without the right capital,
09:23without the right forward investments,
09:24without the right talent,
09:25I don't think we're going to get very far.
09:28If you find that there's spread to themselves inれた kind of bueno,
09:30because we've got a relatively ήiない reason for them.
09:34So our team wanted to be acknowledging that
09:35that there's going to be some of our webinars
09:37and happening with our brand new combat IN to this space.
09:39Now, it seems to be great,
09:41we'll find that we go into that building too.
09:43What's there?
09:45You think it ought to be balanced?
09:48Let's say a different way,
09:49the right thing we wor Sofia remarks qué
09:52So, let's consider the case of what
09:53someone does.
09:55Do not want to be balanced in this space.